King County Council: District 2

Question 1

Taxes & Affordability: Tax burdens have increased and shifted as new levies have been adopted and commercial property values have declined. How would you limit the growing burden on residents and businesses while maintaining a sustainable County budget?
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Toshiko Hasegawa

Families and businesses are already struggling with rising costs, while declining commercial property values put additional pressure on residential taxpayers. We cannot respond to every budget challenge by asking them to pay more.

First, we need greater value from existing dollars. I support Executive Zahilay’s base-budget reviews, savings officers, stronger financial controls and tying contracts to measurable outcomes.

We also need to grow the tax base. A healthy downtown, thriving businesses, new housing and job growth generate public revenue. So does helping people become self-sufficient. Connecting people to housing, health care and jobs reduces costly cycling through courts, jails and emergency systems while enabling more people to participate in our economy.

King County voters are generous, but government owes them accountability. I support levies that make crystal clear how dollars will be spent and how results will be measured.

We also need alternatives to repeatedly raising regressive property taxes. I would explore a public development authority that leverages surplus County property and bonding capacity to finance housing, child care and other infrastructure. Over time, it could support low-interest business lending and potentially public banking, generating revenue while investing in our economy.

Fiscal responsibility means spending wisely, growing the tax base and leveraging public assets before asking taxpayers for more.

Rebecca Saldaña

We need a sustainable County budget, but we cannot solve every budget problem by asking residents and businesses to pay more. I will start by making sure we are using existing dollars effectively, measuring outcomes, eliminating duplication, and focusing resources on the services only the County can provide.

At the same time, King County has a structural problem: state law limits annual property-tax revenue growth to 1%, while the costs of providing essential services grow faster. I have consistently supported making our tax system more progressive. In the Legislature, I helped pass the capital gains tax and co-sponsored the Millionaires Tax because I believe new revenue should come from those with the greatest ability to pay rather than increasing regressive taxes that hit working families and small businesses hardest.

A strong tax base also depends on a strong economy. Filling vacant storefronts and offices, building more housing, improving public safety and behavioral health, and delivering reliable transit are not separate from fiscal policy — they are essential to rebuilding the economic activity that supports County services.

Question 3

Behavioral Health & Homelessness: How should King County improve its response to behavioral health and homelessness, including delivering on Crisis Care Centers and Health Through Housing, and through its relationship with KCRHA, while serving more people at lower cost?
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Toshiko Hasegawa

I served on Executive Zahilay’s Breaking the Cycle committee and support his approach because homelessness, untreated behavioral-health conditions, addiction and repeated involvement with the criminal legal system cannot be solved in separate bureaucratic silos. The County must make sure its public health, behavioral health, housing and criminal legal systems are working together toward better outcomes.

I support a regional approach to homelessness, but regionalism cannot mean maintaining the status quo. I appreciate the cautious approach Executive Zahilay and Mayor Wilson have taken toward KCRHA given its failures in financial management, accountability and delivery. We need transparent spending, clear performance expectations and measurable outcomes.

We must deliver the Crisis Care Centers, improve Health Through Housing, and recognize the criminal legal system as part of this continuum. I’ve called for deeper investment in collateral-consequences attorneys (public defenders who address circumstances beyond the immediate criminal case and connect people to housing, treatment, health coverage, employment and other supports) that reduce repeated system involvement.

Every County investment should pull in the same direction: toward stable, prosocial and autonomous lives. Success means fewer people cycling through emergency rooms, shelters, jails and courts, and more people contributing to our economy.

Rebecca Saldaña

People experiencing homelessness or behavioral health crises need a system that actually helps them move toward stability, and taxpayers deserve to know that their dollars are producing results. We need to deliver the full network of Crisis Care Centers and make Health Through Housing work effectively, with clear expectations for providers and measurable outcomes around treatment, housing stability and transitions to permanent housing.

I have consistently believed homelessness requires a regional response because people do not stop needing services when they cross a city boundary. As Seattle and King County take back responsibility for service contracts from KCRHA, we should preserve strong regional coordination while establishing much clearer responsibility, fiscal oversight and accountability for results.

That means common performance measures and transparent reporting, stable and accountable contracts with providers, and better coordination among outreach, shelter, behavioral health, hospitals and permanent housing. We should spend less time navigating administrative systems and more resources helping people get indoors, receive the treatment and services they need, and move toward long-term stability.

Question 5

Civic Campus: What is your vision for King County’s Downtown civic campus, and how would you finance its redevelopment while minimizing costs to taxpayers?
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Toshiko Hasegawa

The Civic Campus is one of King County’s biggest opportunities to reshape downtown for the next generation. The County controls roughly eight acres of extraordinarily valuable public land, much of it occupied by aging or underutilized buildings. We should not spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars preserving an obsolete footprint simply because that’s what we’ve always had.

I want a civic campus that is active day and night, reconnects Pioneer Square and the CID with downtown, improves public safety through activity and thoughtful design, creates housing and public spaces, and provides modern facilities for County employees and residents.

My experience as a Port Commissioner overseeing billions of dollars in public capital investments uniquely prepares me for this work. I would approach the Civic Campus not simply as a County capital project, but as a major real-estate and public-private development opportunity. We should evaluate ground leases, joint development, consolidation of County functions, redevelopment of surplus property, and partnerships that leverage the value of public land to finance public improvements.

The goal is to unlock the value of these assets rather than send the bill to taxpayers. Done right, we can reduce long-term facilities liabilities, generate permanent economic activity, and build a civic center worthy of our region.

Rebecca Saldaña

The civic campus is an extraordinary public asset that should contribute much more to Downtown than it does today. King County controls roughly eight acres and ten sites in the heart of the city; under current zoning, those properties could accommodate substantial new development, including thousands of homes if developed residentially.

I support transforming the campus into a mixed-use neighborhood that brings housing, workers, businesses and activity to this part of Downtown throughout the day and evening, while providing safe, modern facilities for essential County functions. That redevelopment should strengthen connections among Pioneer Square, the Chinatown-International District, Yesler Terrace and the rest of Downtown — a direction the County has already established for the campus.

I would explore long-term ground leases, public-private development partnerships, disposition or redevelopment of underused assets, and leveraging the value of County-owned land to help finance necessary public facilities. Any agreement should protect the public’s long-term interest and be judged on lifecycle costs, not simply the cheapest upfront option.